Off to see the Wizard . . .

We have almost every thing completely out of our apartment. I'm thinking by the end of next weekend we will be DONE! I can't wait. We don't get very much time to move and such cause of Vince's very long work hours, usually from 4 am till 8 pm, only one or two nights a week does he get off work by 6 or 7 pm, instead of 8. And when he has to be there by 4 am, not much we can do before work. When he gets of work, it's usually just eating dinner, saying a few things to the kids and then it's time for bed. So it's taken us a while to get every thing out, but I am so happy it will be over next weekend!

Amazingly I was able to get the house so clean, I was able to reorganize the garage. I can't believe it. I'm usually so behind the garage would be the last thing on my mind. But, I was able to completely and utterly organize the garage. And now the kids can play in there when it's too cold outside. They have a play kitchen in there, and some ride on toys. They love playing out there.

I've been working on recipes again, and I came up with some pretty good ones I think. The kids liked my pumpkin mac and cheese the best! I liked it pretty well too.

We have been having a ball, quite literally with Lela's gym class that is part of the Calvert curriculum.  We've been playing a lot of four square. However, I ended up buying the two littles their own ball so that they won't keep getting hit in the face, trying to play with Lela and I. They like just chasing the ball any how. And our nature walk was really lovely as well. Lela really likes it. And it for sure is something I needed to start doing! Yesterday was so nice and warm we spent nearly all afternoon out there, from the time Lela was done with school, till Vince got home. Today though it suddenly turned frigid out there. Glad we had one good day out in the sun before the cold came in though!

I've always wanted to decorate our door, but in NYC anything I put on our door was stolen....I think the janitors may of taken them and threw them in the trash, but I just don't know. I know they wouldn't even last a week on the door though. Which is kind of sad. Yesterday at Walmart's clearance section they had all their fall decor on sale to bring in the winter stuff. So I got a really cute autumn sign for the door. I can finally decorate again! Little by little I'm getting the house just how I would like it. Finally, only took a little over a decade. haha I'm hoping they will hurry up and put the fall sugar on sale so I can use those colors to decorate sugar cookies we are going to be making soon. All they had though was halloween colors on sale and I really didn't want them at all. I would like the rich orange though and burnt red like colors they have out for fall though. I bought a leaf cookie cutter and they will be really really cute, with those colors of sugar on top.

Today we are going to see the Wizard of Oz for Lela's class field trip. When I signed up they said they were full, but then I got a email two days ago that they had tickets for us! So that should be fun. The only thing is only Lela can go, no children under 3. I had already signed up for 5 tickets though, we are going to take Hunter and Casey to see it as well. It's in a local high school here, a brand new one, so that should be nice to see how they did this brand new school. I only went to really really old schools when I was growing up, very outdated ones, the first ones built in our town in fact. haha My grandparents had went there! haha Now every thing is new and modern with heat and AC! lol My younger siblings look at me like I'm from the stone age, when I tell them that we didn't have AC in school in fact we didn't even have fans, unless a teacher brought in their own! And our heat was those old oil things that clunked really loudly all day long. Funny how much things have changed very fast around here it seems. Anyway, it's been really nice all the little field trips that the school has planned. I'm so glad that Maize is hosting this for our state. I just love it. I need to check in with the co-op though and see if there's any more planned soon with them as well. After the play we are going to pack more stuff. Then my brother will bring his daughter Lily over and she is spending the night. Lela and Belle will be very very happy about that!

The Simple Woman's Daybook . . .

Outside my window. . . little girls playing red light, green light.

I am hearing...some one eating oreos.

I am thinking. . .Things are going awesome.

I am thankful for. . .having a working husband.

I am remembering. . .nice people from the library.

I am hoping. . .to lose some weight.

I am creating. . .hopefully kind children.

On my mind. . .dentists.

Noticing that. . .It's nice to live in a house.

From the kitchen. . .pumpkin mac and cheese, collard greens, spaghetti squash, pumpkin cheesecake.

One of my favorite things. . .festivals.

A few plans for the rest of the week. . .Getting ahead with Lela's school, and moving more things from my dad's house.

What I am reading. . .email.

Picture for thought I am sharing. . .

RJ at the Haysville Fall Festival 2012

Noah had donuts?

I go to the dental surgeon today. I'm a bit scared, but also relieved to finally start getting some things fixed. The girls get to see my childhood dentist now that we live in Kansas and he's still so much fun and so nice. So glad they get to see him. As I hated the one in NYC, she would literally be 3 hours late even getting to the office, we waited one time for 4 hours out in a dirty hallway for her to even come to the office. A 9 am appointment and she didn't come till around 1 pm! And then when we finally seen her her office was filthy and she would not listen to me at all. Kept saying Lela ate too much candy and drink too much juice. When at the time she was exclusively breastfed and didn't have either one at all! And I repeatedly said she didn't drink juice or eat candy at all! And she would just repeat her self that she ate and drink too much of it! UHG! Didn't like her one bit. Brought her up to see Dr. Moore and right away he found the problem with Lela's teeth was a fall she had, had made her root bleed and stain her tooth. Grrr.

Any way...it's been a good weekend, I finally bought myself some chewbeads, in orange, which really surprised me were the color that looked best on me!  I never would of guessed it. Belle and RJ love them. I got some awesome sales at Catherine's last week too. A beautiful new sweater only 4 dollars, and new nightgowns only 90 cents. They were so cheap I bought all the kids their own leather purses there too, they were small ones, and I bought myself one too, cause it was really cute, and only 90 cents. So we will all match. I'm not big into a lot of purses. But, it will go with some of my other color wardrobe. I have a red leather one that I've been using for years now, and so now I will have a yellow one for when red won't go.

I am ALL caught up on laundry completely still. So I went to Sweet Cheeks and bought a bunch of used diapers. With in two weeks we will be going back to exclusively cloth diapering. And I am so excited about that. I feel bad I had Belle in disposables for so long. But, with out a washer and three kids, it just got to be too much. I'm glad I was able to exclusively cloth diaper Lela, and wish I could of Belle too. But, at least she will be getting some cloth training pants next week. Cause she is in the middle of potting training. Every one of them is getting so big though. Lela just graduated to a booster car seat. It seems like I was just bringing her home from the hospital days ago!

Saturday we finally made it to Noah's donuts. They are a Daylight donut shop just down the street from my house. I must say the donuts are good but I'm still in love with the Winchell's by my mothers house. Since the new ownership of the old Mexican man, the donuts are awesome there! But, the man at Noah's was extra super nice, in a Cheech and Chong type way though. lol We have never made it there cause they are only open 4 am to 11 am. So this was our first time. He gave us a bottle of OJ, and 16 donuts for 5 bucks! Said he was tired and ready to go home. The kids loved them and they weren't bad, they were fresh. I'm just in love with the texture of the Winchell's donuts since the new guy good over. Oh well, we will probably still visit Noah's with the kids cause they really liked the donuts there, and it's literally with in walking distance.

This week I made us my pumpkin bread pudding that I made up the recipe to myself and the kids loved it. So for sure going to have to make that more often. Lela said she wants to take it with us to the pumpkin patch next time we go. This week I'm going to work on tweaking a healthy pumpkin cheesecake to mimic the insanely delicious one at Olive Garden. And also working on a zucchini quiche like the one this lady in Tops used to make in Long Island, I loved that quiche, but she would never give me the recipe. haha Any way hoping to get them all yummy soon, and tweaked just right.

The Simple Woman's Daybook. . .

Outside my window. . .crisp fall air.

I am hearing...poor RJ throwing a fit

I am thinking. . .we will have a long day on Thursday.

I am thankful for. . .for such a good school program.

I am remembering. . .our beautiful time at the pumpkin patch last week..

I am hoping. . .to get to feeling better soon.

I am creating. . .hopefully some happy kiddos.

On my mind. . .dental work.

Noticing that. . .We have a lot of stuff from the school district.

From the kitchen. . .chicken and cous cous.

One of my favorite things. . .small town festivals, loved our fall festival!

A few plans for the rest of the week. . .Going to the library, a play group, hmmm not sure what else.

What I am reading. . .some books I bought at the fall festival.

Picture for thought I am sharing. . .

newly weds...fun day at my favorite park, when we were only married for a year.

We Love Calvert. . .

Calvert just keeps getting better and better. Received another huge box from them today, with lots of fun learning aids. Lela was so excited. Thankfully I bought yet another shelving unit last week other wise we wouldn't have any where to put every thing. Funny thing is I went to Sam's to buy another one like we already bought and they were out of stock and not getting any more. I went from store to store to store, and finally found some like them at Menard's. However it was only the display that they had left. I kept asking the price and they couldn't find the price. Finally they said 50 dollars cause they couldn't find a price. I bargained them down to 44, cause I said that I had bought some like them except for they were brown instead of black and I only paid 37 at Sam's. Any way, they went down to 44. I got them home, and oops, they are like three times the size I got at Sam's. So huge score for me! And boy do I need the extra storage space as well with all these books and aids! I also bought some things from Highlights, (the children's magazine), just love their stuff. Funny thing about that, is I bought only 14 dollars worth of merchandise, and they sent me 20 dollars worth of "free" gifts! haha I am really excited to use the things I bought. I bought a book on creating "learning centers", a book on teaching Cursive Writing just in case Calvert decides not to since it seems most schools are no longer teaching it. And a package of these little writing aids that helps kids read, and write. It keeps them on the line they are reading when they use it to read. And helps them put the right size space between words when they are writing. I am hoping it will help Lela cause she has been working on the spacing. Then they sent me thousands, literally thousands!, of stickers for free. It was funny cause the UPS guy had to bring 4 packages today. When Vince got home he said so did UPS have 1 package or 2. I said four! haha He was like four? I do though wish the school would give us a heads up when they are sending big packages. I was totally not expecting it at all.

Any way, been having lots of fun with Calvert. And going to the MVPS group pumpkin patch field trip. Since last time we were there the food lady was really slow and the concession stand food wasn't even warm (and it should of been!) we are going to take our own food this time. I think I'm going to make beef noodle soup, cause it's one of Lela's favorites. And bring corn bread crackers, all the kids love those. Apple cider, and maybe apple fritters, will have to see. Julie is taking us. And I will be meeting up with my step brother Mark, his wife Cheyenne, and their daughter Lily.

Went to my LLL meeting tonight. Haven't been in a month and it seemed like forever. So glad I got to go back. One of the leaders daughter's just had her first baby. Only 13 days ago. She is a really sweet leader so we are wishing her daughter the best. This same daughter was there for RJ's birth and was really nice and helpful with RJ as well.

And now last but certainly not least, I am finally completely and utterly caught up on laundry, for the first time in our marriage. I want to shout from the rooftops how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE having my own washing machine! It makes keeping up with the laundry so much easier! I love it! 

Lion King and Pumpkins. . .

We seen the Lion King and it was AWESOME! The best production I've ever seen by far. I loved it. And Lela did too. I am so happy we got to see it. I've wanted to see it for years but never could afford to see it in NYC on Broadway. We had a lot of fun and I ended up buying Lela the program for it. I have the Broadway production CD for the music of it for a long time now so we've been listening to it and Lela loves it, especially after seeing the production.

Then on Friday we went to the pumpkin patch with the co-op. It was really nice to go with the co-op, cause we got free pumpkins that way, plus they did a lot of educational things for us. They explained a lot of things about the pumpkins out in the patch and the kids got to watch a video also about how they grow pumpkins and all that a well. I learned a lot from the dvd as well. And they had a blast playing on the slides and playground stuff and all that as well. Then Belle was hilarious. I let them go up to the top of this hill to go down the slides, and they were supposed to take saucers that you use for like sledding to come down on, and when Belle came down, she was holding her saucer above her head instead of sitting on it! lol So her bottom was plenty muddy to say the least! But, she still wanted to go again! lol I was surprised she kept a hold of the saucer as well! lol haha

Then we went to see my sister Sarah in her play of Pride and Prejudice. She did really well, except at the end when she fell off the stage, poor thing. But, she did really really well. 

Today we did some shopping, I got a lamp for my desk really really cheap at Bed, Bath and Beyond. And also a lot of neat art supplies at Hobby Lobby we've been needing. Now if I could only find some book cases I would like. UHG!

Then we went and cleaned on our old apartment some more, I will be happy to get done with it. I want to leave it really really clean, but also need to get to cleaning on where we live too. haha So, will be happy to get on with that as well. Going back tomorrow to work some more.

Lion King!

I am finally going to get to see the Lion King. My dad called me last night and asked me if I was ready for the Lion King thing. And I said what Lion King thing, then he informed me he had bought tickets for Lela and I to see the Lion King tonight! Um....lol would of been nice to have more notice. lol But, all the same I am sooo sooo excited. I have been wanting to see it for years, and it was a awesome surprise to find out I finally get to see it. And Lela was really wanting to see it too, so it will be great for her too!

School is going awesome for Lela. We had our first audit and teacher parent conference and both went very well.  We'll be going to Walters Pumpkin Patch on Friday and maybe again in October, both field trips with the local school. I hope to see some from our old hall there. So we can see them more again.

We went to the La Leche League Brunch Saturday morning. And every one including me brought a quiche. I knew it, I should of brought a salad! I bought grapes to take and then forgot them! haha But, as we were leaving a nice young couple asked us what we would be doing in the afternoon. I said packing and moving more stuff to our new home. They asked if we would like free tickets to the Renaissance Fair, of course we would! So we ended up going Sunday afternoon and had a great time. We got the kids faces painted up, and let them go in the bouncy house. I had their snoods from the spring fair, and such as that for them to wear too. Next spring I want us all to have our costumes made I'm hoping! Belle and Lela both wanted these nylon butterflies on sticks, but they were cheaply made, and I'm pretty sure I can make some really nice ones for just a few more dollars then the cheap ones at the fair, so also hoping in one of our Art classes for school I'll make them those as well before the spring fair. We had really yummy roasted corn, and cheesecake on a stick, but of course they were out of turkey legs again really really early. You would think they would over buy and just sell cheap the last hour instead of running our before noon when the fair goes all afternoon long, till the evening.

Maybe Turkey . . .

 Well we are on the second week of kindergarten for Lela and it is going awesome. We are really liking the curriculum. And having a ton of fun. Lela's teacher is also really nice, and helpful. We just can't believe how much Calvert and stuff into one small box! Thank goodness we bought a shelving unit just for the curriculum.

Lela said the funniest thing in school the other day while I was reading the My Book of Bible Stories. I was reading the story about Noah, and then got to the questions. I asked what was Noah's sons names, she said she didn't remember. I said, one's name was Ham, and then she said maybe one's name was Turkey........lol

Lela also lost her second tooth last night. She is growing up I tell ya!

We still have a lot left to do in our old apartment, cleaning it up and getting odds and ends still moved over. But, at least we are living in our new home, and really like it so far. I'll be glad when we are finally finished though so we can just relax and do more things on the weekends, since Vince's job is such long hours we don't get much other things to do together yet.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Outside my window. . .little girls playing on the porch.

I am hearing...RJ eating.

I am thinking. . .tomorrows lesson plan.

I am thankful for. . .MVPS.

I am remembering. . .my babies being born.

I am hoping. . .to get to a few field trips this week!

I am creating. . .hopefully some smart kiddos!

On my mind. . .getting everything moved over to our new home.

Noticing that. . .Lela is growing up so fast.

From the kitchen. . .meatloaf.

One of my favorite things. . .my babies.

A few plans for the rest of the week. . .Getting Lela's first week of school completed!

What I am reading. . .text books.

Picture for thought I am sharing. . .

Lela's first day of school